


If you care, you stay

by Clockwork



Category: Daredevil (TV), Jessica Jones (TV)
Genre: Character Death Mentioned, Gen, Post canon, Spoilers, post-dd-s2, post-jj-s1, predefenders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 15:06:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8018704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clockwork/pseuds/Clockwork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jessica Jones tries to convince Karen Page to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If you care, you stay

“Get out. Get in a car and drive until it dies then fill up the tank and keep going. Seriously. I will get you a car.”

“A stolen car?” There was amusement in those words.

“Does it matter?” Jessica rolled her eyes, exasperation weighing down every word. “If you actually care like you so do because it’s written on your face in Sharpie, but if you care, then get out of this damn town before you’re the next body they’re picking up off the asphalt.”

“Jessica, I don’t leave because I care. I care about them, and I care about…”

“If you cared,” she snapped, pacing in front of the desk that Karen had once more moved her things into. Nelson and Murdock wasn’t entirely up and running, but it was days away, and the world had changed in so many ways, but this felt familiar and right to Karen in so many ways. “Then you wouldn’t let them face you dying in their arms.”

“Is this because I’m just normal?” 

It almost hurt asking it, but Karen had to lay that out there, just to find out where she stood with this woman that Claire had sent Matt’s way. Claire who also apparently knew about Matt’s alter ego before Karen had. Nope, no bitterness there, except really she had been the last to know and that hurt.

“No.” Except Jessica didn’t look at Karen when she said it, planting her hands on her hips and sounding about as convincing as the sixteen year old girl she looked like in that moment.

“Let me ask you something.” Karen shifted the folders on her desk, ones that were a mixture of her work before with Nelson and Murdock and gathered from her writings with the Bulletin since then. Pulling one up, she dropped it on the top of the scattered files and opened it. A beautiful blonde stared back at them. “Did you have this talk with Trish Walker?”

“Now that’s not even fucking right!”

“Far as I can tell with my research on Kilgrave, and what the hell kind of name is that? Punisher sounds less like a cartoon,” she said, shaking her head. “But in my research I can’t find anything that speaks to me that Trish isn’t as normal as I am. Have you stolen her a car and sent her out to Hollywood?”

Jessica took a step closer to the desk, flipping the folder closed. “Why do you have folders on Trish?”

It was a distraction and they both knew it. Trying to avoid the question, and the answer that they both knew was there even if Jessica didn’t want to say it out loud.  
“I have folders on all the major players in the recent incidents in the city. While Nelson and Murdock was on hiatus…” And she refused to call it broken up for so many reasons. They’d been on a break, not broken up. “I was working for the Bulletin. My write up on Kilgrave and the fallout from it will be front page Monday. Below the fold, but front page.”

Which she was gleeful about, even if she still hadn’t figured out how she was going to pull this off. The jobs conflicted, but she wasn’t willing to give up either.

“What fallout? He’s dead. I’m not going to prison. His victims are getting the help they need. What kind of bullshit are you calling fallout? His death broke the commands”

If Karen had been paying more attention instead of carrying her own hurt, she would have caught that hint of desperation in Jessica’s tones, the quick darting of her eyes as if seeking an exit.

Instead Karen nodded, agreeing with those words.

“You’re right. It did, and no matter how torn the city seems to be? I believe you did the right thing, the only thing you could.” Karen knew about those decisions, the ones of life and death and did you live with the kill or live with those that were killed. They had both chosen living with the kill. “But not everyone is as strong as you are, Jessica,” she said, tones softening. 

This time the folder wasn’t tossed out there, shock and attitude. It was handed to Jessica. “You can keep that one. I won’t include it in the article. Not the names and the deaths.” 

The folder had notes on suicides amongst those that had been in the vicinity of Kilgrave and were thought to be victims of his. It talked about officers quitting the force over their actions, or fear of it happening again. There were notes about the bar that had blown up without mention of Luke Cage, and hypothesis based on a handful of interviews.

“But the point is,” Karen said, speaking softly even as Jessica only stared at the folder, not touching it as if it were burning. “That the people being hurt in this city aren’t all special like you are. The ones carrying on are just like me, and they’re like Foggy. We’re normal, and we’re going to keep fighting.”

Karen paused then, even as Jessica’s fingers plucked the folder from Karen’s hold.

“Did you tell Foggy to get a car and run?” 

The words came out before Karen could stop herself, wincing and wanting to ask Jessica not to answer that. She didn’t though. She had to know where she stood in the midst of all of this.

“Yeah, he laughed and asked me to dinner. Planning to do that too?”

“What? Ask you to dinner?” She glanced to the wall clock. “It’s about that time. I could do with a bite.”

Jessica snorted, giving Karen a look. It changed quickly from mocking to confusion. “You’re serious?”

“What? Foggy gets a pass for that and I don’t?” 

Slowly she gathered up the files on her desk, everything from Frank’s folders to ones on Claire and Kilgrave, as well as Trish and Jessica herself. 

“You know what, sure. I could do with a bite. Where at?”

Karen smiled, picking up her bag. “Your pick, my treat.”

That got another of this displeased looks. “I don’t need your charity, Page.”

“It’s not charity. Let me cite you as an anon source one day and this is an expense dinner.”

Then Jessica did laugh, even if it was a bitter laugh. “You know what? I change my mind. I think maybe you’re made for this town.”

It wasn’t meant to be a compliment. Karen was taking it as one anyway. This was her town, after all. As much as it was Matt’s, and Jessica’s, and everyone else that men like Kilgrave and Fisk worked so hard to try and destroy.


End file.
